“The increasing number of smart phone users in the global market has led to a tremendous increase in the number of apps that consumers use on their phones. The Apple App store boasts close to 2 million of these apps while Google play has over 2.2 million Apps.”

More smartphones equal more apps. There is an app for everything, be it for passing time by connecting coloured dots or calling a cab for going to the office.

Hence, it is inevitable that the event industry would act upon this rising trend and create mobile apps for events. These event apps are definitely a la mode. There are mobile apps for conferences, mobile apps for tradeshows, apps for festivals etc.

These apps usually are event apps for attendees and have a set list of features to them such as Registrations and Ticketing, Networking, Social Wall, Venue map, Activity stream, Discussion forums, etc.

These features are meant mainly to make it easier and more convenient for the attendees in order to engage them with the app and in turn, the event.

An event organizer opts for an event appwith an intention of utilizing the app for a single event. But what about entities like major companies or organizations who conduct multiple events, be it 10, 20 or even 50 events in a year? It isn’t feasible for the organizers to create 10, 20 or 50 separate apps for each of their events.

What’s the solution to this problem? The answer: The Organization App.

An organization app is an app that a company or an organization creates exclusively for its members i.e. the prospective attendees of their events.

Here’s how it works:

It is a platform where they can list all their events. Each event will lead the attendees to a separate platform that is similar to the event attendee app. Each event app has all the main features including attendee profiles, meetings and schedule, speakers, networking, etc.

The organization app also has its own individual features apart from these event app features:

– Members listing

– Events listing

– Polls

– Discussion forum

– About the organization

Why opt for this whole other platforms rather than a basic event app, you ask? One of the most basic and important benefit to do so is convenience.

Apart from it, here are a few more benefits of the organization app:

#1 Easy ticketing:

Think about it, for organizers with, say, 3 events a month, managing the ticketing process through different apps for each event is a major hassle. With an organization app, it is possible to manage your ticketing processes collectively from one single platform.

Payments and other data pertaining to ticket sales can be tracked from the event organizer app. This makes ticketing easier and much hassle free.

#2 Easy to send out notifications:

Having an organization app makes event management 10x simpler. Again, emphasizing the benefits of listing all your events in the same platform where all the members of the organization are listed, it is much easier to manage your events.

With the organization app, it is possible to update the attendees on any upcoming events or send out live updates for any ongoing events to all these members at once.

Event organizers can send out push notification to all their members in bulk using their own organizer’s app. Attendee management was never this easy!

#3 Possible to create member community:

One of the main features of the organization app is creating member listings. An organization app user is able to see a list of all the members associated with the organization.

These members may be the executives of the organization, their attendees or other similar stakeholders. One can go through this member list, see their profiles and can direct message them through the app.

It also makes it possible for the organization to create separate member communities based on multiple criteria. This makes it easier for members with similar interests or belonging to the same industry to interact and network with each other.

#4 Targeted event listing:

This is a feature that is meant for establishing exclusivity among the members and for making it easier for the organizers to manage their event marketing and promotions.

The organization app enable the organizers to segregate and target their event listings. How does this work? When the attendees click on the ‘Events’ feature of the app, the organizers can decide the events that shall be visible to each member.

For e.g. certain events, such as high profile meetings or networking events are meant for certain members only. So, these events will be visible only to those selective members in the listing. It becomes easier to find relevant events for the members as well.

#5 Branding:

As the name suggests, the organization app is a representation of your company, your organization. Hence, branding is essential to this whole process. You can brand your app your way.

You can set the colour scheme of your app, add your logo and design the overall look and feel as per your brand. For e.g. the organization app created for TiE Chennai was designed in a way that was consistent with the overall TiE branding, from logo to the crimson colour scheme, branding was consistent throughout the app.

My point is, the more efficient you make your app, the better is the impression your brand creates. It’s a platform for establishing your brand amidst your members, be sure to use it wisely.

#6 Customization:

While opting for tools such as an event automation suite to create their event app, organizers are often worried about being different. The best part about such tools, though, is that customization is very much a possibility.

From the overall display to the features you choose to incorporate, you can easily customize your organization app.

Customization helps the organizers remain consistent with their event agenda and stand out as a unique brand.Take the TiE Chennai organization app for example. TiE is a non-profit network for entrepreneurs.

The organization app for TiE thus contains an additional feature called ‘Post Your Requirement’ whereby members can list down their requirements in terms of recruitment, vendor requirements, etc. and other members can help out for the same.

#7 Saves cost:

An organization app is a saviour when it comes to reducing the costs for those organizations that conduct a lot of events in a year. Even with a subscription model, creating and managing say 30–50 apps a year, every year will definitely take a toll on your time and budget.

That definitely isn’t a feasible option. The organization app will help you save up your budgetwhere all your events will be listed in a single place. Multiple apps at a very reasonable cost of one.

That’s a pretty fair deal, in my opinion.

Thus, an organization app is a boon for those companies and non-profits who wish to simplify it for themselves and their attendees.

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Hemani Sheth is a Mass Communication major and an event enthusiast. She is currently associated with Hubilo, a cloud based event management platform that aims to help event professionals create exceptional events.
Hemani strives to create resourceful guides that pave way for insightful discussion built around various facets of the event industry. She has a keen interest in event technology and how multiple innovations in the field can help transform the way events are created, marketed and executed.
Hemani is also a content marketer and a key contributor to Hubilo Blog.
An avid reader, traveler and a movie buff, she is open to conversations on any topic under the sun! Go ahead, say hello to her on twitter @HimaniSheth